Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Heartless World

Not so far off the horizon of the Seigyoku’s sleepy town, there was another settlement to the east. A large village that specialized in training. Here, the dominant people in classification were ninja. They ran most of the facilities and the shops that everyday normal people would. Of course, there were other types there too: Clairvoyants would wander the streets in search of the strangest ingredients for their spells and potions, Alchemists, Patrons, and Royals would visit the town to register to the local school, the World Alliance Academy, Priests would come to perform evangelistic acts and teach at the Academy, Bonzes would come to purify their spiritual chi from the considered blessed aura of the town, young Samurai in training would come to the town to use its extensively designed training grounds, Tamers would come to hunt and train the strange and wonderful wild creatures that roam in the mountains nearby, and yet there were still so many different people. The flag, designed by the miniature city’s founder Nobuyuki Raiyoneru divided into four, the flag was colored yellow in one square, red in another, followed by blue and green; these were the colors of the four other flags in existence in their country. This represented the unity in diversity that occurred during these modern days, when differences were mostly pushed aside, and globalization was the norm.

The village’s dominant class were ninja because it was originally a ninja village, but soon became popular over the short time span of four years for its quality of education. Their only school was a massive campus, with all the best facilities. The school was impossibly expensive and only the richest of the rich could afford to enroll without a scholarship. Known as W.A.A. for short, it was the pride and soul of the small city named Riippo-gakure.
In this wondrous cultural hybridity, stood a very annoyed three-striped, high-leveled ninja. In front of him, were his three subordinates. And between them, dangerous sparks began to fly…

Kashikoi stood there, one of his shaded out-of-sight eyes twitching under his hood, agitation building… but he would not let the boy get the better of him. It was bad enough that he be assigned to ‘baby-sit’ the fresh graduates of the facility. He didn’t like handling children, despite the recommendations and full-hearted happy comments the teachers of the facility said about his ability with them.

‘He handles them well and he’s very direct,’ they say, ‘He’s the perfect mentor for young Shitsuyou Komadori!’

Of course, this caused the man to be irritated. To him, such things were nothing but a pack of lies; an excuse to dump these three degenerates on him. He was a good shinobi; that much he knew already without receiving praise from others. But a teacher, he was not. Right now, the cause of most of his annoyance was young Shitsuyou Komadori himself. He was an elite one, he had to agree; the boy had already surpassed all those of his age by a rank, becoming a two-striped shinobi while the others retained only one. It wasn’t that the boy was being disrespectful, as he usually would try to be; undermining the three-striped ninja’s ability to teach. No, it was because he just had to bring up an earlier event of that day. Truthfully, he hadn’t noticed the boy present there when it had happened. He had been too caught up in all the frustration of the moment to notice anyone around him as he headed to their meeting point.

“So… how did your date with Ryuuji-sensei go?” he said, smirking.

---Earlier that day
Haruyuki Kashikoi, an elite shinobi of three stripes; grumbled as he strode through the halls of the selection facility. The three red stripes that ran down the front of his uniform distinctly marked him as part of the Retaliation’s division. He was a dangerous man; anyone who recognized the color of his stripes knew that well. His division specialized in taking revenge in the name of their clients, usually in a brutal and gruesome way. The routine task was to kill the target in a painful and slow way in front of their loved ones. If not, the second option was to kill them, mangle and mutilate their body and then deliver it to the front door of their relatives. It wasn’t a pretty job, and required a skilled and heartless man or woman. He was the perfect fit; cold, stubborn, heartless, and very, very, easily irritated.
Which was exactly why he was so annoyed right now, grumbling to his heart’s content to the empty walls of the building, although it was not going to rid the fact that he had to do his job. He was a dangerous and also wanted man, one who killed with ease and without a care. So why did he have to be the one to go to some children’s selection facility and fetch a scroll for the Kuningas when it was clearly Akemi’s fault for forgetting it?!

‘You can be the one to get it…!’ Akemi had said to him.

‘What…? You’re the one who left it there.’ He had replied casually, more than obviously uncaring. ‘YOU get it.’

Leiko Akemi in all of her arrogance cleared her throat and smirked, folding her arms smugly. ‘I’m your superior Kashikoi-sensei! And I say, YOU get it. So go NOW before I get in trouble…!’

He was a killer, an assassin, not a dog that fetched anything you wanted it to. As much as he respected the Kuningas and his superiors, he hated having to run a one-striped ninja’s errand, it made him feel degraded. Worst of all, he was being ordered around by a stubborn, bratty, slutty-dressed, superiors kunoichi. And oh, how that frustrated him. He gritted his teeth as he continued down the hall, brooding and grumbling, as his complaints fell on the deaf ears of solitude. Or at least, that’s what he thought… until he ran into someone.

“Ooof!” the other cried as the larger man knocked him over easily; he landed with a thud on the floor, papers fluttering everywhere.

Kashikoi blinked as he saw the man fall. It took him a few seconds to register that he had run into him and had been the one to knock him over. He knelt down to pick up the papers that had scattered.

“Ah…” the man uttered as he realized who it was he ran into. “Kashikoi-sen-“
He became silent as Kashikoi looked up at him. The hooded man had a perfect shadow cast by his hoodie that completely covered his eyes. There was no way for the latter to read his emotion except through the form of his mouth. But for now, it was a blank flat line, emotionless itself. The other man frowned as he looked at the pale hooded man.

Haruyuki Kashikoi was a ‘yuki’ as people would say. It wasn’t an official name, rather it was one formed by the younger people these days, namely, by the teenagers. The ‘Yuki’ were called as such due to the fact that they were ghostly pale, and the majority of their race had silver-white hair the color of white gold. They were like albino; their eyes were what made them an exception from the title. At least, those were the rumors that circulated; nobody knew what a Yuki’s eyes looked like. Because even after one died, their eyes would suddenly tint a dark black abyss of nothing, prior to their death. Although, the man looking at the three-striped man was unsure yet if he was a Yuki, since his eyes were always shaded. It was actually rare for one to see a Yuki, since they were secluded and far away from other races. They had but one language, their own, and thought that the dialects of other were inferior and therefore not worth learning.

Haruyuki Kashikoi however, as always, was an exception.

“What?” Kashikoi said, finally betraying his thoughts.

He eyed the man who was staring at him right now, he recognized him. Ryuuji-sensei, as he knew him. He was the head teacher at the selection facility. And, also the only man who seemed to know how wrong of a choice it was that Kashikoi is the one chosen to teach his graduates. However he directed the blame not on those who picked him, but on Kashikoi himself. Somatsu Ryuuji glared at the man, though he was—literally—not in a position to do so. He sat there, hands supporting him as his legs were splayed out, slightly bent and spread. Strangely enough, the younger man had very girly features, appertaining to his horrid past. His hair was long and dark brown, tied in a loose knot behind his head, some of its front spilling onto his right shoulder. He had a funny fringe, it made him look… pretty, like a woman. His eyes were a lighter brown; almost orange, they flashed in the sunlight and contrasted against the dark shade of his hair. He was also tanned. Of course, Kashikoi would constantly talk about him as if he were a woman. Ryuuji had a very protective sense over his students, and the two-striped regretted the superiors’ decision to appoint Kashikoi as their new three-stripe teacher.

“Ryuuji-sensei…” Kashikoi said flatly, ignoring the man’s glare now and continuing to help him pick up his papers.

“Tch…” Ryuuji twitched, not liking the man’s presence or assistance one bit.

“You might not want to sit like that…” Kashikoi said, a slight tease in his voice.

“What?” it was Ryuuji’s turn to ask now. “You look like a woman who’s ready to get it on.”

The white-haired man said bluntly, smirking.

“Tch…!” Ryuuji growled at him, shifting positions to pick the papers up as well. “You’re sick.”

“Hnn…?” Kashikoi asked, still smirking. “At least I know how to be a man, Ryuuji,” he said, losing the respective title.

He was referring to his womanly features again; although Ryuuji had failed to see them for himself… looking like this was quite normal for the man, and yet, Kashikoi never failed to state that it was strange. This irritated the two-striped teacher even more. He cursed under his breath; making sure Kashikoi still heard it with his acute sense of hearing. The white-haired man was known for playing with women and a lot at that. He would get at least ten girls a week, having ‘fun’ with them, and then dumping them after one night, or sometimes, even half the day. This added to Ryuuji’s sureness that Kashikoi was an immoral, self-serving, selfish, disrespectful disgrace of a man. He didn’t deserve the care and fascinated eyes he knew his ex-students would give him with a small display of his skill.

“Corrupt… Perverted… Hypocrite…” Ryuuji’s grumbles now resembled those that Kashikoi was uttering just a few minutes ago. “Murderous…”

Murderous…? That was true. But a shinobi is an assassin, he is supposed to kill, kill and feel nothing about it. Kashikoi puzzled over Ryuuji’s grumblings. He never did understand the younger man, always saying that it is wrong to kill and whatnot. He pondered whether that was the reason for Ryuuji’s stay as a facility keeper. The feminine man seemed to enjoy the innocent and bright faces of the young children, before they were shipped off to people like him, to become trained killers like him. He liked the sight of innocence. And Kashikoi thought now, more than ever that he needed it, otherwise he would be pushed to the brink of insanity. He thought back to the man’s surprised look when he had collided with him and knocked him over. He didn’t take much notice of it then, but he looked… hurt, fragile, and ready to break.

Ryuuji was a skilled man too, Kashikoi knew it. But his heart was as easily torn as any of the women he dumped so many times, and he was very emotional. By skill he was a three-stripe, but by heart, he was still a child. Whatever happened to him in his earlier years had probably managed to do this.

“Hrmph…” Kashikoi smirked, musing about it all; it was his first scrap of entertainment in a long while.

He handed the papers over to the facility supervisor, who took them rather abruptly, and harshly. Kashikoi could feel the distaste Ryuuji had for him radiating off the shorter man, it was funny, and because of his womanly features… oddly cute-and oh, how he knew how to use this. The smaller man was very immature, and Kashikoi did enjoy teasing him every once in a while, it was all a game to the taller man. Ryuuji sighed as he looked through the papers, everything was accounted for. And, being such a good-hearted man, he knew it was wrong not to thank the man for his help, as much as he detested him.

“Th-Thank you.” He said quickly, staring at the papers, not daring to look at the supposed Yuki for his reaction.

That was enough wasn’t it? But, he knew the thanks wasn’t sincere, and felt he had to do something more, again, hating his own good-hearted nature for it. He had seen the man and thought Kashikoi would simply move out of the way as he passed with his papers earlier. Bumping into him was indeed an unexpected accident. Though it seemed Kashikoi had run into him because he was lost and looking for something, utterly ignorant to his surroundings. It was odd to find a three-striped man here in a facility, there was nobody here this early in the morning, save for the children playing in the front yard of the building and Ryuuji himself, preparing for the day ahead.

“Do you… need help with something?” Ryuuji asked.

He was met with silence and frowned, finally looking up at the man to see why he gave no reply. Kashikoi was already fiddling with something in his pocket; he hummed as he did so. At last, he pulled out a piece of folded and slightly crumpled paper, staring at it.

“Room C306…” he simply said, more to himself than Ryuuji. The frown that tugged at Ryuuji’s lips deepened; he hated being ignored. “AHERM.”

“Ah.” The other looked up at him. “Yes?”

Ryuuji sighed; Kashikoi would usually do this to him. “I asked if you needed any help…"

“Oh.” Kashikoi replied. “Do you know where room C306 is?”

Ryuuji sighed again; he thought that it seemed the pale man had no shame for being such an ignorant fool. Ryuuji himself was a nice man; he hardly liked saying or thinking bad things about others. But even he had his limits. But he was surprised to hear where Kashikoi was going. It was his classroom that morning, and Akemi had informed him that she had a little something waiting for him there. Ryuuji couldn’t help but wonder why Kashikoi was being sent to the same room he was, is this little something so dangerous it required a three-striped ninja with him? Knowing Akemi, Ryuuji was well informed that she would never assign anything less than ‘mortal-wound’ dangerous to anyone.

“That’s… the room I’m heading to, Sensei.” Ryuuji said, able to regain some of his usual calm composure. “Do you… want to come with me?”

“Sure.” Kashikoi said, still paying more attention to the piece of paper, though it held nothing more than the room name.

Ryuuji decided it better to ignore the man’s neglecting actions and walked ahead, “Follow me, then.”

Kashikoi could only comply, as he didn’t know his way around the facility like Ryuuji did. On the contrary, Ryuuji knew this place well; it was as if he lived here. Kashikoi noticed this, as Ryuuji didn’t seem to even keep watch where he was stepping, just staring straight ahead as if blind. Then again, it was expected from the man who ran this facility everyday of his life since he graduated. They passed a series of rooms, each with a plastic plate above the door that held a single letter and then three numbers behind it. The rooms seemed to be in order as far as Kashikoi was concerned, he knew they were getting close to their destination as he read one of the passing doors as ‘C304’. He was right, two doors later they stopped, and indeed it was C306. His eyes moved to a steel plate hammered neatly into the door itself. Usually these held the names of the department on other buildings; here, they read the assigned room teacher for the day.

“Your room.” Kashikoi said upon reading it, he suddenly felt slightly uneasy about this.

It was bad enough he liked to tease the man, having done so just a little while ago. But he had now asked for his help, and the room he needed entry into was his. He became irritated again; someone up there must be messing with him. He didn’t believe in God or whatever it was people believed in, he just liked to blame whatever they did believe in. After all, casting the worry on someone or something else other than oneself was comforting and less burdening. Although recently he was starting to believe his misfortune really was caused by a god or ‘God’ or… someone to that effect, everything he knew about this ‘GOD’ up there was thanks to Ryuuji. The man wouldn’t stop yabbering about it sometimes; he would get excited like a kid. Blech, now that was annoying. This was also one of the reasons he liked to annoy the other. Payback.

“Yes.” Ryuuji replied, taking out a key and flashing it over the sensor lock. Sadly, he didn’t even have a chance to reach for the handle.